To Do List: Productivity Using Lists, Part 2
For people like me, who tend to procrastinate or let things slide, deadlines are the ultimate motivator. Even the sound of the word, “deadline”, evokes a sense of dread and urgency in me. I know that when I have a task that has a deadline, I better get that done because if I don’t meet that deadline, I’ll be in big trouble. The problem is, not all tasks come with a deadline. Those are the tasks that often slip by the wayside, the ones that never get done. I found a trick to keep those tasks from slipping through the cracks though. When I get a task that doesn’t have a deadline, I give it one.
Yes, you read that right, I set my own deadlines. Too many times have responsibilities and tasks slipped right off my to-do list because they didn’t have a deadline. Tasks without a deadline seemed less important, I could keep pushing them back. Not any longer, now as I create my to-do lists, for each task I either record the deadline it has or I make one up. It really doesn’t matter what the deadline is, but the important part is that I give it a deadline. Now, all of the tasks on my list seem of equal importance. Everything has as time by which I need to get it done.
It’s worked, too. Now that I give each of my tasks a specific deadline, I find myself more likely to get things done and not push them off. Sure, I’ve slipped a few times and “reassigned” a new deadline to a task, but even those tasks eventually get done. There are only so many times I can push a task off before guilt gets the best of me. The bottom line is that this simple trick I play on my mind, helps me get everything I need to do done.
